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When we’re driving in a car, we often play a game called “Name That Color”.

Here’s how you play: You see an interesting color out the window and you have to analyze which pigments in an artist’s palette you would mix together to make that color. The other person playing has to agree, or suggest a different pigment to make that color. Everybody wins!

For example: The sky in the painting “Late in the Day” was based on colors of the sky we saw in Jamestown, Rhode Island during the Summer of 2014. The upper sky is made of white, cobalt blue, and pthalo blue. The lower sky consists of cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, alizarin crimson, and white.

The most common dream that I have that ends up in a painting is a dream of flying. This is always accompanied by a feeling of adrenaline and is enjoyable. I usually take flight over a landscape, fields with some trees and occasionally it takes place off of a street in some unknown town. There have been several paintings and interpretations of these flight dreams.

“A Different Kind of Dreamer” depicts our daughter, Julia, flying in one of these landscapes of the imagination.

Fun Fact: As graceful as this flyer seems, in order to capture the essence of flight, Julia had to jump off a chair in our backyard. This was done several times until we caught the right angle for the picture. Must have been a funny sight for our neighbors.

Check out this lovely little ditty called “Flying Dream 143” by Elbow:

Books are an important source of inspiration. Neil Gaiman (one of our favorite authors) even said:

“A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.”

We just wanted to share with you a couple books that we have read, or that we are planning to read. A few are there as general reference we use when thinking about ideas for paintings, such as Carl Jung’s “Man and his Symbols”. While others are there to help guide us in mindful living (Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Present Moment, Wonderful Moment”). “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore” was recently read by Julia and she only has wonderful things to say about it. How can you not love a book about books and bookstores?

What book has been in your hands lately? We always love a good read and a good referral!